Humanities 1B is an interdisciplinary introduction to human creativity in literature,
philosophy as well as the visual and performing arts of mainly Western civilization from
the Italian Renaissance to the present. This course explores our need to create, search
for life's meaning and the impact of theses efforts on our contemporary, culturally
diverse experiences. In this examination, the course engages both the history of thought
(philosophy, science and history) as well as the history of art (including but not
limited to music, architecture, film, painting, ballet and literature).

This course investigates the question of how we got to where we are today. What shifts
in perception had to take place for the modern world to become our post-modern times?
To answer this question, Humanities 1B begins with a brief review of the Middle Ages
(or Dark Ages) to highlight the amazing explosion of artistic and intellectual creativity
that took place during the time of the Renaissance. This whirlwind tour also traverses
the era of colonialism and its effect on Europe, Africa and the Americas.

We then follow the emerging ideas from Humanism to the era of the Enlightenment, when
scientific discoveries literally transformed the way humans saw themselves and their
role in the cosmos. The writings of Goethe (Faust) and Shelley (Frankenstein) will
serve as a foil to capture the dis-ease that arose in response to one-sided reliance
on reason.

Once the period of Romanticism is behind us, enter the great economic and industrial
expansion that coincides with the artworks of the French impressionists (such as Monet and Degas)
to arrive at the stirring images of the Cubists Expressionist (such as Pablo Picasso,
Edvard Munch and Franz Marc) that foreshadow the violent military confrontations of the
20th century.

The course concludes with an assessment of where modernity has left us. We look at
post-modern art and philosophy to assess how the central question of "How do I live
a good life?" has changed or stayed the same over time.